Sterlite targets 5G business in Mideast
Indian firm looks for potential partners in the roll-out of next-gen technology
India’s Sterlite Technologies (STL) is on the lookout for potential partners and clients in the Gulf’s fast-track 5G telecom roll-out.
It is “a very strategic area for us by virtue of the fact that technology adoption is high, new infrastructure continues to get built (and) there is a good amount of capital available,” said Anand Agarwal, Group CEO of STL. “We are talking to several players, including people who are looking at creating new infrastructure.”
STL, which has a market cap of nearly $1.5 billion, is back into expansion after a blockbuster first quarter this year. The telecom equipment provider’s quarterly profit soared more than 1,000 per cent to around $15.6 million as Covid-19 restrictions were eased in India.
STL provides 5G ready digital network solutions help telcos, cloud companies and large enterprises. This includes optical connectivity, network modernisation and fibre deployment.
Watching closely UAE is very much on STL’s radar. Agarwal pointed out that while tech innovations typically move from the West to the East, in the case of telecom, it is the exact opposite. “We see the east — Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea (and) Japan — being very well progressed in terms of all these technologies,” said Agarwal.
Roll-out target
All inhabited parts of the UAE will come under 5G network coverage by end 2025. Demand for 5G services shot up during the pandemic as working from home and hybrid working models became the norm.
Earlier, the telcos would invest their own capital, but that’s changing now. “We are seeing cloud companies get into this digital transformation in a major way,” said Agarwal.